One of Redmond’s largest employers, PCC Schlosser, will continue with business as usual when its parent company, Precision Castparts Corp., becomes part of the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, a spokesman for Precision Castparts said Monday.

Berkshire Hathaway — which already owns PacifiCorp, Dairy Queen and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, familiar corporate names in Central Oregon — announced Monday an agreement to acquire Precision Castparts, based in Portland, in a deal valued at $32.7 billion. The deal is reportedly the biggest in Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett’s career.

Precision Castparts, No. 302 in the Fortune 500, is a supplier of complex metal components to aircraft companies such as Boeing and Airbus and engine makers like Rolls Royce and General Electric. It also supplies components to the oil and gas industry.

The deal includes the company’s outstanding debt.

“We said that things would kind of continue on for employees,” said Precision Castparts spokesman Joe Hixson . “We’re happy with (the company’s) strategic direction, how we’re executing against the plan. We’re not going to be making big changes.”

In a statement to customers and employees filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Precision Castparts stated it expects operations to remain the same after the acquisition. No layoffs are planned, the company stated.

“Berkshire Hathaway has a history of empowering management teams to continue to drive their businesses independently,” according to the Precision Castparts statement. “Our style of management and daily focus will not change — you can expect business as usual in your facilities and a sustained focus on all of the factors that have driven our shared success over the last 60 years.”

In 1997, PCC Structurals, a division of Precision Castparts, bought Schlosser Casting Co. in Redmond, accelerating the company’s entrance into the growing airframe market, according to the Precision Castparts website.

Renamed PCC Schlosser, the Redmond operation manufactures titanium castings for jet aircraft engines and other products. The plant employs about 350 people, making it the largest manufacturing company in Redmond, said Jon Stark, Redmond manager for Economic Development for Central Oregon. He said he hopes to see Berkshire Hathaway bring more horsepower to PCC Schlosser.

EDCO Executive Director Roger Lee said Berkshire Hathaway’s record is not one of quickly turning its acquisitions for a profit.

“They’re not much into turnarounds, siphoning off of assets, rejiggering stuff to be sold,” Lee said. “They’re very much buy and hold, and provide capital to grow.”

Berkshire Hathaway agreed to pay $235 a share for Precision Castparts, a 21 percent premium above the Friday closing price. Precision Castparts closed Monday at $230.92 a share, higher by $37.04, or 19.1 percent, than Friday, according to the New York Stock Exchange. The deal could close in the first quarter 2016, provided regulators and shareholders sign off, according to a news release from Precision Castparts.

“In terms of price-earnings multiples going in, this is right up there at the top,” Buffett said Monday on CNBC. “This is a very high multiple for us to pay.”

Analyst JB Groh of investment firm D.A. Davidson & Co. of Lake Oswego said the Berkshire Hathaway offer finds Precision Castparts undervalued. In other words, Buffett’s offer is well-timed. Precision Castparts traded at $273.99 per share in June 2014, a five-year high, according to the NYSE. Weakness in oil and gas markets have hurt Precision Castparts shares, which traded about 20 percent lower in the past year as a result, Groh wrote in a research report Monday.

“The market was not appreciating Precision for what it is,” Groh said by phone. “I think he’s (Buffett) just taking advantage of a market anomaly.”

Precision Castparts will retain its name and Portland headquarters, according to the news release. The company employs about 30,000 worldwide and earned $1.54 billion last fiscal year on $10 billion in sales, according to the company. It has 155 manufacturing facilities around the world.

Buffett told CNBC his portfolio manager, Todd Combs, brought Precision Castparts to Buffett’s attention. Buffett said Combs added Precision to his portfolio about three years ago. Buffett said he met Precision’s CEO, Mark Donegan, at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley conference in July and made a bid for the company.

“I made him a bid, and he took it to the board, and before long we had a deal,” Buffett said on the CNBC “Squawk Box” program.

Donegan will continue running Precision Castparts, according to the company’s statements.

“This transaction offers compelling and immediate value for our shareholders,” Donegan said in the news release, “and allows PCC’s employees to continue to operate in the same manner that has generated many years of exceptional service and performance to our customers.”

Precision Castparts last year received five years’ worth of property tax breaks from Deschutes County to offset the $2 million cost of new machinery at the 52,000-square-foot PCC Schlosser plant on NE Hemlock Avenue in Redmond. The exemption, part of incentives provided in enterprise zones, saved the company about $160,000.

The expansion project included adding another 25 employees to the Redmond workforce, according to The Bulletin archives.

Deschutes County Administrator Tom Anderson said he hopes the sale leaves PCC Schlosser intact in Redmond. “We certainly hope that, as a major employer in Redmond, the business stays, and those jobs are kept local,” he said.

Precision Castparts made acquisitions of its own in the past year: Composites Horizons LLC, a supplier of high-temperature carbon and ceramic composite components, and Noranco, an aircraft components supplier.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com